Living with symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of Graves Eye Disease (Thyroid Eye Disease) and Hyperthyroid--What to expect, questions to ask, and more.

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All of the information I write about is based on my personal experience. As I have lived it. I hope the information you find here is useful, informative and educational. Remember, please don't use the information you read here as a substitute for your personal medical care or professional medical advice.

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Exercise & Graves Disease

Good evening everyone. Today in the news I saw that Missy Elliott announced she has Grave's Disease, the latest celebrity to come forward and talk about her experience and the effects of the disease. Congratulations to Ms. Elliott for sharing her story and helping to create awareness of this autoimmune disease.

For those of you who happen across this post and have been diagnosed with Grave's Disease, I would love to know the answer to this question from your point of view:

What have your doctors told you about exercising when your Grave's/hyperthroid is not under control? In other words, is it safe to do even light exercise when you're experiencing heart palpitations, Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC), some level of dizziness, etc. as I am? Does it cause strain (even damage) to your heart?

Click this link for both a definition of what Premature Ventricular Contraction is as well as an audio file where you can actually here what it sounds like!! Belive me, when you experience this odd heartbeat, you know it!

I've received mixed reviews on this one and would appreciate any information readers can offer.

One thing that happened to me which was completely unexpected was weight gain. While weight loss is more typical, I found weight gain in Graves Disease can occur for some. It certainly for did me. I've always been very active and physically fit. But when it came time for my biannual executive physical the doctor I saw asked me a lot of questions about my illness. She was especially concerned with me keeping my exercise pace in concert with my rapid heartbeat. My resting heart rate, while typically low (in the 40's when I woke up), now was exceedingly high. And I had heart palpitations too.

She asked me to take a reprieve from my excercise routine, which I did. That, combined with being fatigued nearly all the time (I managed to push through it to do something, even walk on the treadmill in the past) led to a 20+ pound weight gain over a period of about 7-9 months.

I have since started excercising again, but even now I don't push myself too hard. I do feel better and am working to drop the unwanted and unexpected weight. If you experience any heart issues, as I did, please be sure to talk to your doctor about whether or not you should continue to exercise or not. The last thing you want to do is risk damaging your heart at a time when it's already being taxed by fast beating and hard pounding beats. With abrupt short stops and flutters known as palpitations.